Quotations Wikipedia:Manual of Style

1 quotations

1.1 original wording
1.2 point of view
1.3 typographic conformity
1.4 attribution
1.5 quotations within quotations
1.6 linking
1.7 block quotations
1.8 foreign-language quotations

quotations



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while quotations indispensable part of wikipedia, try not overuse them. brief quotations of copyrighted text may used illustrate point, establish context, or attribute point of view or idea. recommended content written in wikipedia editors own words. using many quotes incompatible encyclopedic writing style, , may indicate copyright infringement. consider minimizing use of quotations paraphrasing, quotations should not replace free text (including 1 editor writes).

original wording

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quotations must verifiably attributed, , wording of quoted text should faithfully reproduced. referred principle of minimal change. there reason change wording, enclose changes within square brackets (for example, [her father] replacing him, context identifying him not included in quotation: ocyrhoe told [her father] fate ). if there significant error in original statement, use [sic] or template {{sic}} show error not made wikipedia. however, trivial spelling , typographic errors should corrected without comment (for example, correct basicly , harasssment harassment), unless slip textually important.

use ellipses indicate omissions quoted text. legitimate omissions include extraneous, irrelevant, or parenthetical words, , unintelligible speech (umm, , hmm). not omit text doing remove important context or alter meaning of text. when vulgarity or obscenity quoted, should appear in cited source; unless faithfully reproducing quoted text, wikipedians should never bowdlerize words replacing letters dashes, asterisks, or other symbols. in carrying on such alteration quoted source, [sic] may used indicate transcription exact.

in direct quotations, retain dialectal , archaic spellings, including capitalization (but not archaic glyphs , ligatures, detailed below).

point of view

quotation should used, attribution, present emotive opinions cannot expressed in wikipedia s own voice, never present cultural norms opinional:

acceptable: siskel , ebert called film unforgettable .
unacceptable: site considered sacred religion s scriptures.

concise opinions not overly emotive can reported attribution instead of direct quotation. use of quotation marks around simple descriptive terms can seem imply doubtful regarding material being quoted; sarcasm or weasel words, supposedly or so-called , might inferred.

permissible: siskel , ebert called film interesting.
unnecessary , may imply doubt: siskel , ebert called film interesting .
should quoted: siskel , ebert called film interesting heart-wrenching .

typographic conformity



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a quotation not facsimile, , in cases not requirement original formatting preserved. formatting , other purely typographical elements of quoted text should adapted english wikipedia s conventions without comment provided doing not change or obscure meaning or intent of text; practice universal among publishers. these alterations make no difference when text read aloud, such as:

styling of dashes , hyphens: see § dashes, below. use style chosen article: unspaced em dash or spaced en dash.
styling of apostrophes , quotation marks

these should straight, not curly or slanted. see § quotation marks.
when quoting quotation contains quotation, alternate between using double , single quotes each quotation. see § quotations within quotations details.


replacing non-english typographical elements english equivalents. example, replace guillemets (« ») straight quotation marks.
removing spaces before punctuation such periods , colons.
generally preserve bold , italics (see § italics, above), other styling should altered. underlining, spacing  w i t h i n  w o r d s, colors, caps, small caps, etc. should normalized italics or (rarely) boldface. titles of books, articles, poems, , forth, add italics or quotation marks following manual of style guidance titles.
expanding abbreviations.
normalizing archaic glyphs , ligatures unnecessary meaning. examples include æ→ae, œ→oe, ſ→s, , þ→the. see § ampersand, above.

however, national varieties should not changed, these may involve changes in vocabulary. example, quotation british source should retain british spelling, in article otherwise uses american spelling. (see § consistency within articles, above.)

direct quotation should not used in attempt preserve formatting preferred external publisher, when material otherwise unchanged:

acceptable: animal listed endangered on iucn red list of threatened species.
unacceptable: animal listed endangered on iucn red list of threatened species.

italics can used mark particular usage term of art (a case of words words ), when unfamiliar or should not reworded non-expert:

permissible: animal listed critically endangered on iucn red list of threatened species.

when quoting complete sentence, recommended keep first word capitalized unless quoted passage has been integrated surrounding sentence.

attribution

the author of quote of full sentence or more should named; done in main text , not in footnote. however, attribution unnecessary quotations person discussed in article or section. when preceding quotation attribution, avoid characterizing in biased manner.

quotations within quotations



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for quotations within quotations, use double quote marks outermost and, working inward, alternate single double quote marks: said, book claims, voltaire said disapprove of say, defend death right it. 2 or more quote marks in immediate succession, use {{ }}, {{ }}, or (as in example given) {{ }}, add small amount of nonbreaking space between quote marks.

linking



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as possible, avoid linking within quotes, may clutter quotation, violate principle of leaving quotations unchanged, , mislead or confuse reader.

block quotations

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format long quote (more 40 words or few hundred characters, or consisting of more 1 paragraph, regardless of length) block quotation, indented on both sides. block quotations can enclosed in {{quote}} or <blockquote>...</blockquote>. template provides parameters attribution. not enclose block quotations in quotation marks (and avoid decorative quotation marks in normal use, such provided {{cquote}} template). block quotations using colored background discouraged.

poetry, lyrics, , other formatted text may quoted inline if short, or presented in block quotation. if inline, line breaks should indicated by /, , paragraph or stanza breaks by //. wikipedia s mediawiki software not render line breaks or indentation inside {{quote}} or <blockquote>, <poem> extension can used preserve them:

this result in following, indented on both sides (it may in smaller font, depending on browser software):

do not abuse block quotation markup indent non-quotations. various templates available indentation, including {{block indent}}, , (for inline use) {{in5}}.

foreign-language quotations

quotations foreign-language sources should appear translation english, preferably modern one. quotations translations should explicitly distinguished not. indicate original source of translation (if available, , not first published within wikipedia), , original language (if not clear context).

if original, untranslated text available, provide reference or include it, appropriate.

when editors translate foreign text english, care must taken include original text, in italics (except non-latin-based writing systems), , use actual , (if @ possible) common english words in translation. beware linguistic false friends : portuguese federativo in organization names should translated federal not federative, 1 example among many. unless of competency translate something, see wikipedia:translation assistance.